


shot in the dark

by crystalesbian



Category: Scream (TV)
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/F, First Kiss, Practice Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-09-03 06:11:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8700541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalesbian/pseuds/crystalesbian
Summary: Audrey and Emma's first kiss. When it doesn't count, and when it does.





	1. just a kiss

It’s eighth grade, when Emma is just starting to get really pretty— she’s always been pretty to Audrey, but now she’s braces-off, hair-like-a-pantene-model pretty— when she gets asked out on her first date.

The guy’s name is Derek something, and he’s in Emma’s American History class. His mom is picking Emma up at seven o’clock. They’re going to see Perks of Being a Wallflower at the Zenith theater. Audrey is sitting on Emma’s bed as Emma paces around her room, relaying all this information to Audrey.

Audrey is technically supposed to be helping Emma get ready for her date, but they both know she’s not going to be any help with that. It’s becoming fairly obvious that Emma just needs someone to vent her worries to, and as usual, that role has fallen to Audrey.

She’s been mostly tuning out Emma’s ramblings about what if she’s overdressed or what if Derek Something doesn’t like the movie she picked when Emma stops pacing and turns to Audrey, eyes wide. “What if he tries to kiss me?”

Audrey cringes despite herself. “I don’t know. Let him? Or don’t.” Emma keeps staring at Audrey, eyes boring through her. “Jeez, Emma, I don’t know!”

“Well, I’ve never kissed anyone before.”

“So?”

“So what if I’m not good at it?”

Audrey snorts. “I’m sure you’ll be great.” She blushes right after she says it. “I mean— c’mon, how hard can it really be?”

Emma bites her lip. “Do you think—” she stops herself, cheeks flushing red. “Nevermind.”

“What?” Audrey asks, sitting up on the bed.

“Well, I mean,” Emma starts, sitting next to Audrey, “do you think we should practice?”

As soon as the thought enters her mind, Audrey pushes it out. Emma can’t possibly mean what Audrey thinks she means. And Audrey shouldn’t be thinking about kissing Emma right now. She wishes she hadn’t thought about it dozens of times before now. “I— what?” she sputters. “Practice how? Like—”

“Like with each other,” Emma finishes, looking more uncertain by the second.

“But— why would we do that?”

“Neither of us have ever kissed anyone! Don’t you want to be actually good at it when the time comes?”

Audrey’s mouth just hangs open for a second.

“You know what, forget it,” Emma finally says, biting her lip harder and looking down. “It’s a stupid idea.”

Maybe it’s because the thought won’t leave her mind now, or maybe it’s just because she hates that kicked puppy look that Emma is wearing, but Audrey finally blurts out, “I mean, sure, we could try.”

“Really?” Emma asks, perking up.

“I mean, it’s just practice, right?”

“Right.” Emma nods. “Just practice.”

They both sit there for a few long seconds, just staring at each other, before Emma says, “So… how do we start?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, should I start, or do you start or—”

“Emma, I don’t _ know _ !” Audrey whines. “I don’t know why you’re acting like I’m some kinda kissing expert all of a sudden!”

Emma nods. “I guess it’s only fair if we both go at the same time.”

There’s a lot of bumping noses and “okay, maybe tilt your head to the right— no, my right!” and Audrey turning her head at the last minute blushing and Emma ducking her head down giggling, and Audrey is about to get up and tell Emma “You know what, forget it, this was stupid anyway,” when Emma cups Audrey’s face in her hands and just plants one on her. Audrey’s eyes go wide at first, then after a second, she closes them and relaxes into it. Emma’s lips are soft and Audrey can smell that strawberry lip crud she’s been wearing lately. She doesn’t know how long they’ve been kissing when Emma pulls away. “So, how was that?”

“Good,” Audrey answers immediately, only a little breathless.

“Should we try it again?”

“Do we—” Audrey stops herself. Emma’s face is beet-red. “What?”

“Nothing I just— I just thought— what if he tries to use tongue?”

“Oh my God,  _ Emma! _ ”

“Sorry, sorry! It was just a thought I had. I’m not gonna make you stick your tongue in my mouth.” Emma is practically bent over with giggles now. Audrey just stares at her dumbfounded. “But really though,” Emma says after composing herself, “don’t you want the extra practice too? So that when we kiss other people— when it actually counts— we’ll be good at it?”

That shouldn’t sting like it does, but when Emma says that—  _ when it actually counts _ — it’s a sharp, quick pain, followed by a slower, duller ache and puffiness all over her body. It reminds her of the time she’d gotten stung by a bee the summer between second and third grade. She been playing out by the stables with Emma when it happened, and Maggie had to rush her to the hospital when she had an allergic reaction to the sting.

“Are you okay?” Emma asks when Audrey doesn’t answer her after a few seconds.

“Yeah,” she answers, and her throat feels thick and tight just like it did by the stables that summer. “I’m fine.”

“Okay,” Emma says. “Are you sure? I’m sorry if I made you do anything you weren’t comfortable with. I was way too pushy about the kissing thing, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Audrey says. “Emma, you didn’t do anything wrong.” She looks at her watch, just to get away from Emma’s stare. “It’s almost seven. Are you gonna do makeup?”

Emma finally cracks a small smile. “Do you think I should put on mascara, or just stop at lip gloss?”

-

Derek Something’s mom comes to pick Emma up and Maggie gives Audrey a ride home.

Audrey slams the door to her room when she gets home, not caring how much it annoys her dad, and flops down on her bed, screaming into a pillow. She just lies there for a while, letting herself feeling miserable. After a few minutes, she grabs her laptop and puts on a stupid action movie to take her mind off of Emma sitting in a dark theater next to some gross, hormonal thirteen year old boy with his hand probably rubbing her leg. Audrey falls asleep halfway into her own movie, and wakes up a little over an hour later, Emma creaking open the door to Audrey’s room.

“Hey,” she says quietly. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were sleeping. I got Derek’s mom to drop me off here instead of home. I called my mom and your dad, and they both said I could sleep over.”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Audrey scoots over, making room for Emma on the bed. “How was your date?” Audrey asks, more because that’s what a friend should ask, not because she cares. “Did he try to kiss you?”

Emma makes a face as she sits down on Audrey’s bed. “Ugh. His breath smelled like Doritos. I turned my head at the last second. He licked my ear.”

Audrey wrinkles her nose. “Gross.”

“I know! His mouth was so wet, it was disgusting. It felt, like, slimy.”

“Ew!” Audrey laughs. Emma giggles along with her.

“I don’t think I even want a boyfriend right now anyway,” Emma sighs. “Boys are just  _ so _ immature. Derek wouldn’t even pay attention to the movie, he kept talking to me the whole time and trying to rub up against me.”

“Sounds like a real tool.”

That sends Emma into giggle fits again, and they keep talking late into the night, lowering their voice to whispers when it passes a certain hour. Emma tells Audrey horror stories of how her date went until they’re both droopy-eyed and yawning. The last thing Audrey hears Emma say before falling asleep is “The whole time I was there, I was just thinking about how I’d rather be hanging out with you.”


	2. on your lips in the moonlight

It’s after everything— after Piper and Kieran and all the aftermath. It’s summer and things haven’t gone back to normal, will probably never go back to normal, but at least the dust has started to settle. They can at least go out in public without breaking down. Emma still jumps at the slightest sound and Audrey has at least one knife on her at all times.

They go out to a party one night. It’s a tremendously stupid idea, but it’s the end of summer and school will be starting soon and there’s sort of a silent agreement that they should get used to being around a lot of people again.  _ Brooke _ is their designated driver, shockingly enough, as therapy has apparently been teaching her some coping mechanisms that don’t include drinking or sex. None of them have actually been huge drinkers lately anyway.

It’s a small party and Audrey doesn’t know the host and she spends most of her time alone out on the back porch sipping beer pretending not to hate the taste and trying to remember what it’s like to be a normal teenager. She’s not sure if she ever knew what that was like, even before everything.

Audrey hears the back door open and can tell it’s Emma from the way she approaches. They’ve both kind of mastered the art of not sneaking up on each other at this point. “Hey,” she says softly, “I’ve been trying to find you.”

“Sorry,” Audrey sighs. “I just— you know…”

“Didn’t wanna be around people. I get it.” Emma hangs her head. “Everyone was looking at me in there. Everyone is always looking at me.”

Audrey just nods, tightening her grip around the neck of her beer. “I know.”

Emma is looking at Audrey now. She’s looking at Audrey in a way that doesn’t make sense, and it makes Audrey nervous. Audrey’s about to ask Emma if she’s okay, before Emma leans in quickly and kisses Audrey.

She tastes sweet, like lemonade. It takes Audrey a few seconds to properly react, to pull away and ask, “What are you doing?”

“I’m—” Emma stutters for a moment, like she doesn’t fully know herself. “I’m sorry, I just— I wanted to make it count.”

Audrey shakes her head. “You—  _ What? _ ”

“I don’t know, okay?” Emma says. “I just keep thinking about stuff. Thinking about you, and the barn, and the way we were before. And I keep waiting for the right time to say or do something but I don’t think there’s ever going to be a right time.”

“Emma, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Audrey says, even though she thinks she does.

“Can I show you then?” Emma asks, looking at her, and Audrey nods, because of course she can, of course she always can.

It’s nothing like their first kiss, not sweaty and nervous and shaky and overflowing with things she tried to push down, all of the can’ts and shouldn’ts. Instead, the kiss is like the first rush of cold air on her face after coming inside from a hot summer day. Emma’s kiss is like hearing an old song she forgot how much she used to love. It’s like Sunday afternoons.

And it  _ counts _ , so Audrey lets herself kiss back. She kisses Emma Duval in the moonlight on a stranger’s back porch where everything is okay for just a moment and it finally counts.


End file.
